Facebook users should be educated on how to detect fake news, MPs have been told

Stephan Lewandowsky of Bristol University told a Commons panel that telling people what they read is wrong isn’t enough - because repeating a claim hammers it into your mind even if it is being denied.

“It is possible to give people inoculation, like a vaccine almost, by pointing to specific rhetorical strategies that are misleading.

“The more you get to people ahead of time and educate them about discernment - how do you tell a Twitter troll from a real person - the chances are that that has a positive effect.”

The psychology professor claimed it is now possible to target individual users by using their Facebook “likes” to determine their personality.

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He told the MPs: “There are algorithms that if they get 300 Facebook likes they can do better than your spouse in predicting your personality traits.”

And he warned that social networks were encouraging the growth of conspiracy theories, because people with extreme views who would previously have been ignored in their communities can now link up with millions of others who share their beliefs.

At the same hearing, Vian Bakir of Bangor University suggested Facebook was desperate for the “fake news problem” to disappear - because the firm doesn’t want to have to police its users and delete misleading content.